Siena looks for more from Poole

While there’s very little at stake in today’s BracketBuster game against Radford, the nonleague contest does offer Siena an opportunity to get Siena guard/forward Rob Poole back on track.

Poole, who has scored in double figures 15 times this season, has done so only once in the past five games. He’s scored three points combined in the Saints’ past two games, including a scoreless effort against Loyola last Saturday. He took only two shots against the Greyhounds.

Siena coach Mitch Buonaguro said Poole’s struggles are tied into opponents’ greater awareness of him, as well the fact that he’s had to handle the ball more with Rakeem Brookins out with a back injury.

“I think teams are locking into him more,’’ Buonaguro said. “I think he had a really good first half of the year, in the conference, teams know us well and they know he’s one of our key guys. We’ve got to get him open more.’’

Buonaguro said the team has worked on practice this week at getting Poole open while coming off screens because he’s better at that than beating defenders off the dribble.

“I’m trying to, but with the team now, now he’s handling the ball more because of the injuries,’’ Buonaguro said. “His thing is coming off screens, I think, trying to get him some open looks, which is hard to do now. It’s not easy because of the state of the team.”

Buonaguro said he doesn’t think Poole is the same player since he suffered a bad case of the flu last month that took him out of the lineup for four games and caused him to lose 12 pounds.

“I don’t think he’s physically 100 percent yet,’’ Buonaguro said. “I think he’s getting close, but it took almost a month. I think he’s gained three pounds since he came back. I think that’s part of it.”

Poole said after his goose egg against Loyola that teams have been getting after him more aggressively since he came back from his illness against Niagara last month.

“It’s kind of tough,’’ Poole said. “They’re really into me and I’ve just got to expand my game, get stronger, I guess, and try to get better.”